Scramble to mitigate impact of Covid-19 on food security

Dar es Salaam. The Southern African Development Community (Sadc) heads of state have been challenged to implement policies and laws that would prioritize food sovereignty in order to mitigate the plight of hunger following the outbreak of Covid-19.

The regional leaders have been called to create a conducive environment for small-scale food producer’s freedom to decide and make liberty on food systems as well as providing them with necessary means of production and productivity.

Also, they have been asked to implement a debt moratorium and resources diversion from debt repayments towards rebuilding the public health system and investing in critical social services.

The Southern African People’s Solidarity Network (SAPSN) issued the challenges in a declaration containing several other issues after a virtual platform meeting aiming at coming up with the post-Covid response and recovery plan.

The virtual discussions were held alongside the Sadc summit that took place in Mozambique.

Highlighting the plight of Covid-19 in the region, the declaration says Sadc was in the middle of a hunger crisis leading to chronic food insecurity due to pressing climatic and market pressures following Covid-19 outbreak.

“An estimated 45 million citizens in 13 Sadc countries are food insecure with Covid-19 negatively impacting the capacity of citizens to produce, purchase and even move staple foods,” says the declaration.

Furthermore, the declaration says blanket lockdown measures have severely undermined movements of food between rural and urban areas and between communities on different sides of the same borders, thus increasing the risks of malnutrition and food insecurity.

Leader’s lack of urgency in strengthening production capacities, climate resilience and market access for smallholder food producers was at the heart of the region’s inability to become food self-sufficient, according to the declaration.

“Therefore, we demand Sadc heads of state to implement policies and laws that prioritise the region’s food sovereignty now, as opposed to corporate food regimes,” says the declaration.

The declaration also demands member states to create conducive environments for small-scale food producers to have freedom and liberty to decide on food systems, while providing them with necessary means to secure production and productivity towards building agricultural justice in respective countries.

“Sadc governments should increase budget allocations towards sustainable agriculture and food production systems with a priority focus on improved extension services, inclusive financing, access to information, technology and diversified value chains for small-scale food producers,” the declaration says.

Furthermore, the declaration instructs regional governments to integrate their efforts in the UN Decade of Family Farming, the Food Agriculture Organization (FAO) Voluntary Guidelines (VG) small scale fisheries, land tenure and governance and domestication of the UN Peasant Rights Declaration (UNDROP).

According to the declaration, Sadc governments should put in place mechanisms to minimize disruptions to farming operations, which enable access to inputs, markets and other critical supplies essential for farming operations even in the context of Covid-induced lockdown and restrictions.

“We demand greater investments by governments and local authorities in improving sanitation facilities at markets, where necessary, increase spaces as a way of decongestion and develop innovative ways to promote social distancing in the markets,” says the document.

SAPSN on behalf of citizens in the region also calls for financial rescue packages and other targeted measures to ensure smallholder farmers and Micro, Small and Medium Agro-Enterprises (MSMAE) remain viable in restructuring public agricultural loans and supporting measures. Governments, development partners, agri-businesses and mobile phone operators should work together to ensure that mobile technologies are used to provide extension services to farmers as well as pests and diseases surveillance, according to the declaration.

“Information on market prices should be disseminated and facilitation of mobile money payment platforms upheld to liberate the region’s agriculture,” says the declaration.

Furthermore, the declaration says governments cannot continue servicing and accrue debts when citizens’ basic needs are unmet and macroeconomic conditions are in rapid decline.

Therefore, SAPSN expressed serious concerns on Covid-19 inducement of new debt borrowings and economic stimulus packages in order to push regional members into debt crisis and resource leakages for servicing private sector’s debt accounts.

“We call on Sadc governments to implement a debt moratorium and divert resources meant for debt repayments towards rebuilding the public health system and investing in critical social services sectors,” reads the declaration, adding; “These should include energy, water, sanitation, housing infrastructures as well as building resilience for people to withstand the impact of the crisis.”

The regional strategy to manage loan contraction and negotiations for debt relief during the Covid-19 crisis should also be considered as a matter of paramount importance.

Therefore, the Parliamentary oversight and accountability committees should increase supervision on all new borrowings and utilization of borrowed and sovereign funds, according to the declaration.

“All Sadc countries should strengthen public debt management processes and facilitate transparent reporting and that earmarked resources for critical public services like health, social protection, food security, child care and education shouldn’t be diverted to pressing services for private sector debt accounts,” according to the declaration.

Country thematic secretariat focal point, Mr Allute Severine said the Sadc post Covid-19 people-centered plan should address a debt crisis that would affect the majority of countries in the region.

“More deliberations from various stakeholders will enable us to formulate the Sadc post Covid-19 strategic plan that will benefit citizens in the entire region from the grassroots level,” he said.

Independent researcher and social media influencer, Mr Mukasiri Sibanda said despite richness in natural resources, most Sadc mineral rich countries perform poorly in the anti-corruption crusade according to the International Corruption Index (2019).

“Sadc is now confronted with twin challenges; Covid-19 and corruption as health ministers in Zambia and Zimbabwe were arrested for abusing funds disbursed to contain the disease,” he said. He said Covid-19 has disrupted production and commodity prices for oil, gas and minerals with exception to a few including gold and silver.

“The net effect is the thinning of the taxable income with immediate impact felt on royalty fees that are based on invoice value and the Corporate Income Tax (CIT),” he said.

In her opening remarks, SAPSN secretary general and Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development, Ms Janet Zhou said Covid-19 has decimated income in the region, calling for just, equitable and prosperity in order to have dignity and peace.

“In the post Covid-19 our lives matter. Therefore, our government should struggle and secure for the future of its people,” she said.